They'll Never Take My Body from Your Side
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the canon characters; they belong to their respective owners such as Netflix, Amblin Entertainment, and the original author of the mangas. This is dedicated to my younger sister Madison who gave me the prompt, and thus is not being used for monetary gain of any sort. Oh, and there are a few lines taken from Season One Episode Twelve of Daredevil, because I just watched it last night and it made me think of Ban and Elaine so much!
"I'm never leaving you," he whispers into the night air, setting his red boots in the corner of his bedroom at the Boar Hat while shrugging off his red jeweled shirt, causing snow to fall to the floor.
The desired recipient of the statement sits up in the bed, rubbing sleep out of her golden eyes before she motions for him to come over to the bed.
"Ban, you can't blame yourself," she whispers back, not wanting to wake up Elizabeth and Meliodas on the floor below. "Please, just come get under the covers, Ban. You must be freezing," Elaine continues, sitting against the headboard and pulling the covers around herself in a makeshift cocoon.
Ban finishes discarding his shirt and then moves over to the bed, sitting on the edge with his head in his hands before he speaks in a gravelly, muffled voice.
"It is my fault, Elaine."
A beat of silence passes.
Ban remains quiet, his head in his hands with his back turned to Elaine as his back muscles tense visibly in the soft glow of the lamp.
Elaine moves over towards the edge of the bed, her hands barely peeking out from the sleeves of her white nightgown as she moves closer to Ban.
"Ban, look at me," Elaine gently says closer to his ears, resting her arms and head against his toned back as she runs her hands through his light blue hair, tossing out a few stray snowflakes that had followed him in from the blizzard.
Ban shrugs his shoulders, nearly sending Elaine toppling backwards in the bed, but she manages to right herself without letting her hands leave Ban's back as she tries to offer him some form of comfort.
"I can't," Ban simply sighs, letting his head come out of his hands, but his scarlet eyes continue to look towards the floor below him, and he refuses to look Elaine in her shining eyes.
"Ban, please look at me," she politely commands, tugging a little bit at Ban's arms to try and move them where she may can at least catch a glimpse of his face.
With him sitting down on the bed and her sitting on her own feet atop the mattress, Ban is the closest to her height he will ever be, save for when they lied side by side in the Fairy Forest when Ban was a young bandit that came seeking immortality, not knowing he would fall head over heels in love with Elaine. She decides to use this to her advantage as she successfully pries Ban's hands away from his face and she gets a view of the right side of her true love's face, not knowing the inner turmoil occurring in his brain in the same instant.
"I am not worthy," the Fox Sin of Greed reveals simply, doing his best to look away from Elaine, trying to block her out of his sight momentarily even though he had kissed her nearly senseless earlier in the day just to ensure himself that she was actually there. That she was actually alive and breathing…
"Ban," the fairy trails off, her blonde hair cascading down her cheeks as she moves to sit on one of Ban's much longer legs. "Please, tell me what's…" and here Elaine is cut off as Ban looks down at her, desperation, fear, and plenty of tears building in his eyes and some managing to escape onto his pale skin.
Elaine has never seen him this frightened before, and that is even including the demon attack that took her away from him.
"I killed you, Elaine!" Ban shouts in a sob, his throat choked with emotion as he swallows a thick lump forming from the outburst. "You… You told me to run, and like the greedy, selfish beast I am, I didn't listen! I didn't listen," he trails off, turning to face her, cupping her cheeks in his hands as he feels the warmth of her pale skin and senses her warm breath hitting against his own lips and cheeks as she stares up at him. "And, and I killed you, Elaine. Not only is that my sin, but it is also my greatest regret. We coulda run off together and lived a perfectly good life and been happy together, but I just had to play the hero! I just had to prove myself to you, to think that I was stronger than a demon that was probably taller than Diane, to think I could save you," the Fox Sin continues, his voice cracking as Elaine wipes tears from his eyes as she nuzzles closer to his warm chest. "I killed you, Elaine. And yet, you still love me anyway," Ban sighs, letting all of his pent up emotions out that he has been carrying around with him for the last twenty and some odd years. "An', to this day, I don't know why," he proceeds to question his own relationship with Elaine, a statement that nearly brings the blonde-haired fairy to tears.
She knows that Ban is completely in love with her and has thought about her every day and night, as she could see him whisper her name throughout the day and night from where she was trapped in the Necropolis before he was able to bring her back to the land of the living. Elaine is also completely in love with the man beside her, his drinking habits and near-death experiences in all. She hadn't saved him from the Red Demon in the Fairy Forest by giving him immortality and then saving him from becoming King's personal statue in the Necropolis for nothing. Elaine the fairy princess wraps her arms tightly around her love, not quite reaching all the way around Ban's torso since he is substantially larger in her in height and a number of other categories, but the gesture does not go unnoticed by the Fox Sin of Greed. Ban lovingly wraps his own arms around Elaine, sniffling as he shelters her small body closer to his large, muscular frame even while he scoots backwards to be sitting entirely on the bed. He feels the need to protect Elaine from everything in the world now since he has already loved and lost her once. That was after only a week of knowing Elaine, and Ban knows if he were to lose his darling fairy again that he would honestly wish for death more often than he did during her first twenty year absence. In some way, Ban would find out how to end his own immortality if only to offer Elaine the chance to live again, should the need arise.
Elaine allows one more moment of silence to pass before she collects her thoughts and starts to give them to Ban where he can understand how deep her love for him truly runs.
"Ban, I love you for so many reasons, and I know you're going to contest that," Elaine remarks, a smile on her face and love shining in her golden eyes as she traces a heart on his bicep while staring into his sparkling scarlet eyes. "But, I really do, Ban. You were the first human I had ever met that didn't only care about himself. You were the first one to ever tell me the truth that you didn't know why you came to the Fountain of Youth in the first place," Elaine reminisces, and that results in a small laugh and smirk from Ban as he thinks of the first time he met Elaine in the Fairy Forest. "You made me feel safe once we got over the initial times when I threw you off the tree to your presumed death."
"That was not nice at all, Elaine," Ban grins, pressing a soft and endearing kiss to Elaine's cheek before moving down to press one to the side of her neck before preoccupying himself with drawing invisible designs on Elaine's hands as she continues to tell her story after laughing at Ban's attempt to lighten the mood.
"I am aware. I apologize for throwing you off the tree, Ban, my love," Elaine apologizes to the thief of her heart, smiling up at him, and she moves slightly to compensate for Ban gently detaching her from his lap.
"I am afraid I cannot accept your apology, Elaine, my darling fairy," Ban smirks as he lies down on the right side of the bed, spreading himself out to where he covers nearly the entire expanse of the bed. "Considering you threw me onto some very sharp trees and could have caused my premature death and all," he laughs, and Elaine joins in, her voice melodic and angelic, reminding Ban for all the world of when he convinced her to drink some of his ale on the top of her tree.
Ban opens his arms, and Elaine tucks herself close to his side and chest, becoming wrapped in his embrace as they lie there on the bed together. The blue-haired Fox Sin of Greed pulls the blanket up to Elaine's chin to combat the frigid temperatures that had presented themselves outside today in a blizzard that had appeared out of nowhere right after Elaine was successfully resurrected and was safely in Ban's warm, loving arms. Ban had practically forbidden Elaine from leaving the Boar Hat once he got her safely back, afraid the white, powdery snow would turn into a sinkhole and suck his dear Elaine back into the Necropolis or some other form of an underworld that would keep her prisoner and out of reach where Ban could never reach her again, not even in dreams or nightmares. Ban shudders simply at the thought; he dutifully curls around Elaine like an oversized dog, his stomach and chest pressing against the small of her back, offering the fragile, petite fairy both an external source of warmth as well as a solemn vow of protection, love, and respect.
Elaine takes a slightly shaky breath before she continues her reasons for why she loves Ban entirely.
"You made me feel love for the first time, Ban. I had never experienced it without you," Elaine admits, looking Ban in his eyes and curling closer to his side, feeling the heat radiating from his chest but also wincing slightly at the chill of his bare chest. "You loved me, despite having only known me for a week, and I appreciate that… No. I love you for that," she continues, moving one of her small hands to cup Ban's cheek as she proceeds to tell him all of the reasons why she loves him, regardless of his own self-doubt. "Then, when the Red Demon came and tried to destroy the forest as well as kill the two of us, you decided to fight. You decided to try and protect my home. You decided to try and protect me," Elaine gratefully remarks, her smile widening and love shining in her eyes as she brings the blanket up to cover more of Ban's chest where the cold air won't numb his skin any more than Elaine can already feel. "You would have given your life up for me, a complete stranger, and my forest without any hesitation, and that is why I love you, Ban. You may think you are greedy and self-centered, but you were willing to die to save me," she softly weeps, and Ban collects her in his strong arms, one wrapped firmly around her waist and the other cuddled behind her head and neck to cover her completely in his warmth and strong feelings of love as well as his strong desire to protect her. "That is why I saved you instead of myself, Ban. I wanted you to steal me from the Fountain of Youth, but that was not in the stars for either of us. I wanted you to live, because I saw your potential, your passion, and your love for the forest. I knew you wouldn't let me down," Elaine reveals, wiping a few tears out of her eyes before looking up and noticing that Ban is about to cry as well.
She knows he had never thought of himself in this light before.
She knows he had never believed he could atone for his sin of greed that everyone convicted him of.
She knows how much she truly loves the extremely boisterous man beside her.
And she knows how much he truly loves her as well.
"I'll find whoever did this and make them understand," Ban vows, pressing a kiss to her temple before then moving downwards to place a kiss on each of her cheeks and then a long, soft, and slow kiss to her pale pink lips.
"Understand what?" Elaine softly inquires when the kiss breaks and she has enough oxygen in her system in order to respond after that breathtaking and extremely sweet kiss Ban had given her on the lips.
"Understand that they can't take you away from me," the blue-haired Fox Sin of Greed reveals, shifting a fraction of an inch in the bed in order to keep his legs from falling asleep. "They'll never take my body from your side again, Elaine," Ban swears, pressing his lips lightly against Elaine's knuckles as he strokes one of his massive hands through her shoulder-length blonde hair as a way to tether her to this world without fear of her being snatched from him again.
As long as he has a physical and emotional hold on his fairy princess, nothing would ever, and he does mean ever, take her away from him. Not again.
"Whoever sent that Red Demon to the Fairy Forest will pay for ripping your life away from me and from the forest that needed its Princess. Hendrickson had been resurrecting the demons and used demon blood to make the New Generation, and I was beaten, bloodied, and even died many times while fighting him in order to try and exact revenge for your unlawful and unmerited death, Elaine," Ban lets her know his part in the battle against Hendrickson, and Elaine can't help but let out a choked sob at the fact that Ban took on one of Liones' top threats after dying several times just to exact revenge for her death.
"Ban," Elaine breathlessly whispers, and it breaks the blue-haired Fox Sin of Greed's heart to hear her sound like that. "Thank you. For everything," she begins before she clarifies. "You have every right to love me, and I never want to hear you say that you are not worthy of my love. Do you understand?" the blonde fairy practically demands, and Ban can't help but chuckle at her authoritative tone of voice.
"Yes, ma'am," Ban smirks, and Elaine laughs at his schoolboy-like tone of voice.
"Good. Now, I promise that I won't cry as much as tonight once I get over the primary shock of being resurrected."
"Cry as much as you like, Elaine. No one here will judge you, including me."
"Well, if we're going to go to sleep, then you need to at least put on one of your longer-sleeved shirts, Ban. You're going to catch a cold if-" Elaine begins to say before Ban cuts her off with another kiss to the lips, this one slightly more forceful than the last as the door to the bedroom opens.
"Yo, Ban, have you seen Elaine?" King inquires as he floats in with Chastefoil, a yawn overcoming the Grizzly Sin of Sloth as he wants nothing more than to sleep after the exhausting night the Seven Deadly Sins have had.
"Yeah," Ban replies in a rather laid back tone of voice as he turns his head to look over his shoulder at King. "We're makin' out," he laughs, exposing his sharp canines as his grin widens.
King begins to freak out, his nose practically bursting with blood as a stream comes out much like the time when Elizabeth and Diane revealed themselves to Meliodas at the fighting festival.
"E—Elaine!" King practically shouts, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Ban is getting out of the bed to grab a shirt out of his closet in order to cover his bare chest.
"Don't worry, Harlequin," Elaine giggles, peeking her head up from her cocoon of covers, a large, somewhat guilty grin on her face. "We were just talking," she reveals, and King visibly relaxes, his contorted face going back to a relaxed one when the words leave Elaine's mouth. "But, we did kiss," Elaine makes known, and that just sets King off again.
"I think I'm gonna go sleep downstairs on Chastefoil with Diane," King mutters under his breath, hoping that no one heard that last part.
"Eh, don't make it sound that creepy and she may accept!" Ban laughs after his fellow Sin, and he knows that King's face is most likely as red as a tomato.
With that, Ban slips into bed beside Elaine, this time with a shirt covering his chest, and the two of them settle down to get some rest.
For the next three nights, neither Ban nor Elaine sleep very well due to the current disaster scenarios that seem to plague Ban's mind and the nightmares that plague Elaine's.
"You know, last night was the third night in a row Ban woke me up to make sure I wasn't dead. To be honest, I think it's pretty sweet," Elaine reveals to Diane and Elizabeth while the three of them are having girl talk in the Boar Hat since Merlin had taken all of the boys out of the tavern in order to investigate some local sightings of potentially dangerous magic in the area.
"Ooh, details!" Diane squeals, sitting on top of the bar, happy with her newfound small state where she could actually stay in the tavern and engage in chats with her girls.
However, Merlin rarely wanted to engage in these talks and instead kept the rowdy boys of the Seven Deadly Sins from making too big of a mess or getting into trouble with Gilthunder and Howzer.
"Yes, Lady Elaine, what has Sir Ban been doing to make sure you aren't dead?" Elizabeth inquires in slight confusion, yet she is also curious as to if Ban's methods differ from Meliodas'.
"Well, the first night I returned, Ban simply sat up in bed, peered over at me, and then shook me a little bit before asking in a hurried, concerned, and gravelly voice if I was okay and if I was truly alive," Elaine reveals, a chill racing down her body just think of the memory of how distraught and concerned Ban was that night. "After I assured him I was, he calmed down a little, but I had to sing him to sleep with a lullaby my mother used to sing to Harlequin and me when we were both young. And yet, he still fell asleep with tears in his eyes but a smile on his face," she finishes the tale of the first night, and Diane and Elizabeth have two completely different responses.
"Ooh, how cute! I bet Ban probably was trembling out of fear! Was he?" Diane presses, and Elaine can't help but shake her head before the Serpent Sin of Envy continues. "Can you teach me that song? It'd be fun to surprise King with it!" she grins, her violet eyes widening and lighting up at the same time.
"I'm sure Sir Ban appreciated you trying to calm his nerves, Lady Elaine," Elizabeth remarks, and her face is soon turned into a smile as she sets a comforting hand on Elaine's shoulder. "What happened the other two nights?" the third Princess of Liones questions, not wanting to press the matter, but she would like to know what happened where she can try and prevent any of the Sins from saying something that could trigger Ban into either a state of rage, fear, or tears.
"Well, the second night, I woke up screaming, thinking that the Red Demon had killed me all over again and taken me back to the Necropolis, leaving Ban heartbroken all over again. And then, in the same dream, it switched, and Ban was somehow imprisoned in an alternate dimension where no one could reach him. Ban woke me up from my nightmares to make sure I was all right, but he had to soothe me and run his hands through my hair for half an hour before I could fall back asleep," Elaine reveals, and both Diane and Elizabeth offer the blonde-haired fairy a hug when her golden eyes get a far-off look in them, almost as if she wishes she could be with Ban and the others now.
"And last night?" Elizabeth asks, her voice soft and not at all pressing.
"It was much like the first night. Ban pretended to be sleeping at first, but I kept feeling him turn over from his sides to his stomach to his back, all while trying not to crush me. Eventually, he woke me up and asked if I was chilly and wanted any of my favorite tea he had bought at the market when he and Meliodas went shopping for the week's food," she starts off, her lips forming a smile as she thinks of how sweetly Ban had asked her if she wanted some tea. "But, I could see through that and knew that Ban really just wanted to make sure I was alive and could respond. He still doesn't know that I knew his real plan," Elaine says in a laughing tone before slipping behind the bar and grabbing one of the ales that Ban kept in his private stash that only she knew about. "Now, what do you say we help ourselves to a glass or two of some of the best ale in the world? Ban won't know," Elaine giggles, remembering this particular variety as one of her favorites he had her try in the Fairy Forest twenty years ago.
"I'm in!" Diane shouts, grabbing three glasses from the cabinet over the bar and then sliding them down to Elaine. "Elizabeth?" the Serpent Sin of Envy turns around and waits for the youngest princess to respond.
"As long as my father doesn't find out," Elizabeth remarks in a soft tone to which Diane begins to chatter animatedly about how she and Merlin were rubbing off on the princess and turning her into a rebel of the highest order.
Ban wouldn't know they had gotten into his secret stash, but Elaine does know that he is quite aware of and expressive in his love for her. And that, honestly, is all that matters to the fairy who had just recently been resurrected and reunited with her true love.
Author's Note: And there's my sixth Seven Deadly Sins FanFiction! This was written for my younger sister Madison who challenged me with the prompt for Ban and Elaine. This couple has become one of my top OTPs of all time, and writing for them is definitely a roller coaster of emotions. I hope everyone enjoyed, and look out for any other Banlaine and other general Seven Deadly Sins stories from me! Have a nice day, afternoon, or night; until next time, my dear readers! Hope everyone enjoyed, and, as always, reviews are always appreciated and helpful!
P.S. I have only been able to upload so many stories this week because my school has been out since Friday, January 12th due to some snow and a lot of ice that has made the streets unsafe for where I live. So, I believe I will have to go back tomorrow or at the latest Monday, so the frequent stories from me will now be a slower process and not be as frequent. Thanks for your support!